This short story is an entry in the 2001 Soc.Sexuality.Spanking Summer Short Story Contest and is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission. Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice. The author would appreciate your comments
Category: Firsts
This one could have been entered either into the firsts or the lasts category, since it uses a line from each list. However, the line from Mija's first list is much more of an integral part of the story than the line from the last list, so that's the category I went with.
Once Upon a Time in the War
By
Starship <starship_64@yahoo.com>
It was the last thing I'd expected to find. I mean, who goes looking for a lover in the middle of a battlefield, right? But once upon a time I was young enough and stupid enough to believe in crap like fairytales, and true love.
And so I found Teresa. Teresa Antonia Savarino. I met her in Sicily, in the town of Gela, when I was flying Mustangs there with the 86th FBG. She had a little restaurant overlooking the airfield, which her father had built with his own hands years before. The minute I saw her, I fell head over heals. And she fell for me the same way, or at least I thought she did. But like I said, I used to believe a lot of things once upon a time.
Before long, every moment that I wasn't flying, I was spending with Teresa. We'd take walks along the beach, or borrow bicycles and ride up into the hills. Some days I'd help her out in the restaurant. At night Teresa would come to me, naked, and tell me that she was a bad girl. Then she would bring me her father's old leather cavalry belt and I would punish her with it until she howled. Afterward there would be tears in her eyes as we made love, even as she wrapped her legs around mine and held me tightly against her body. And I'd tell her that she was a good girl, and believe it was true.
But nothing lasts in wartime, and eventually the 86th left Sicily, pursuing the retreating German army northward up the Italian peninsula. I wrote to Teresa nearly every day, and for three months she wrote back faithfully. Until I had a visit one day from two captains from military intelligence. They grilled me for hours about Teresa and what we had done together. It was only near the end that I was told why: It seemed that an electronic detection unit had discovered a short-wave radio in Teresa's attic. A German short-wave radio. All the time the 86th been in Gela, Teresa had been watching the airfield from her restaurant. Whenever the planes took off, she'd warn the enemy that we were coming. Eventually it was decided that I hadn't known anything about it; that I was just some stupid lieutenant who'd let himself believe he'd found true love. And so the two captains went back to headquarters, and I was left all alone.
I got one final letter from Teresa after that; apparently she'd mailed it just before she was arrested. I tore it up, unread, and threw it away. I never went back to Sicily, even when my tour was finished. To this day I don't know, I don't want to know, why she betrayed us. Why she betrayed me. But every once in a while I'll pull out an old picture or two and let myself remember a girl I once loved. And remember that once upon a time, I was foolish enough to believe.
The End
© Copyright Summer, 2001
Reviews
Naomi Darvell <naomi_darvell(at)hotmail(dot)com>
This has the feel of a real-life memoir. It's compact, but a number of well-chosen details give it depth. I like the ironic way the "good girl/bad girl" language of BDSM plays itself out here.
Tami <tamishy(at)webtv(dot)net>
This may be a lovesick girl talking who is terribly missing her mate, but I don't think it's foolish to believe in true love.
What's that saying 'it's better to have loved and lost..... '
No, I don't think love is foolish, painful maybe; but never foolish.
Sad story, but well worth the tears.